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U.S. slaps punitive penalties on Chinese oil tubular goods

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Wednesday slapped punitive penalties on imports of some 2.6 billion dollars of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from China, in the biggest U.S. trade action taken against China.
The ITC “has made affirmative determinations in its final phase countervailing and antidumping duty [...]

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Japan maps out 10-year growth strategy through 2020

TOKYO: The Japanese government on Wednesday unveiled a 10-year growth strategy through 2020, eyeing an average economic growth of 3 percent in nominal terms.
The government designated the environment, health, and tourism as the key areas of development, targeting the creation of a total of 4.76 million jobs, and will try the nominal gross domestic product [...]

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Net access being restored in Xinjiang

URUMQI: Internet service in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will be gradually restored following nearly six months of closure after the deadly July riot in the capital, the region’s information office said yesterday.
Residents in Xinjiang yesterday started to have access to two websites: xinhuanet.com and people.com.cn.
Access to even the two websites is restricted. Users in [...]

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Former Indonesian president Wahid dies at 69

JAKARTA (AFP) – Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid died in hospital on Wednesday aged 69, after a long battle with illness, a party official said.
Wahid was Indonesia’s fourth president, coming to power in 1999 after the country’s first general elections following the fall of military strongman Suharto in 1998.
Popularly known as Gus Dur, he [...]

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Laos tells UN it’s too soon to visit Hmong

BANGKOK – Laos denied the U.N. immediate access to 4,500 ethnic Hmong who were forcibly repatriated from Thailand, saying Wednesday it would “complicate” matters but that international observers could visit later.
Thailand deported the Hmong on Monday in a massive 24-hour military operation, ignoring pleas by the U.N., the United States and others that fear they [...]

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Afghan civilians “shot dead” by foreign forces

KABUL (AFP) – An Afghan government investigation into the deaths of 10 civilians in the country’s east found they were dragged from their homes and shot dead by foreign troops, the president’s office said Wednesday.
The dead included eight school students aged between 13 and 17 years old, a statement from President Hamid Karzai’s office said.
International [...]

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Activists rally for ‘martyr’ held in N.Korea

SEOUL (AFP) – About 60 activists staged a rally on Wednesday in a show of support for a US Christian missionary detained after he crossed into North Korea on a one-man human rights crusade.
The activists who gathered in the South Korean capital called on the North’s leader Kim Jong-Il to “repent” for his country’s rights [...]

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Indian police file new cases in abuse scandal

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian police have registered new complaints against a former officer who molested a teenage girl and then allegedly harassed her family in a case that has caused widespread outrage.
The case of Ruchika Girhotra, 14 at the time of her assault in 1990, has dominated Indian news over the last few [...]

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China vows to cut red tape for foreign investors

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will make it easier for foreign investors to start businesses in the country, especially in its western provinces, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
It said China would open a wider range of sectors to foreign investors and would encourage them to establish labor-intensive businesses in the west, the [...]

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Japan unveils ambitious economic growth strategy

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s prime minister unveiled an ambitious goal Wednesday to create millions of jobs and return Asia’s biggest economy to steady growth as he battles a drop in his popularity and a funding scandal.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said his three-month-old government aimed to create 4.76 million jobs by 2020. He set a [...]

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